And with a whooshing sound, it did. An image came to his mind then: of his sword in a small room the size of his room in the outpost.

Again, this was something Azaroth never thought was possible. He had never heard of such rings before, which spoke to how rare and expensive they must be.

Giving them such resources, Azaroth could only think of one person doing so: their elusive patron. He wondered who the person was.

And the big question: what did their patron expect of them? Giving them something this significant must mean that they expected something of equal measure.

Azaroth narrowed his eyes even further. All this training, everything was leading to something—something he knew he would not like.

"How do you like your rewards?" Crypt Master asked.

Azaroth checked the ring again. He could think of a lot of things he could do with this besides storing his sword. A lot. This was not something that would be given out just like that.

Alex exclaimed, "Wow! I can feel the space in my mind. As if I can reach out and... wow!" His sword jumped out as he thought about removing it.

Stallus could only think of one way of using the storage ring: stuffing it with crystal. Now, the only issue for her was where she would see the amount of crystal she needed.

Catena thought the storage space was interesting, but wouldn’t it be more interesting for him if it was filled with food? Now, they wouldn’t have to carry their meat with their hands.

Crypt Master clapped. "That is not the only reward for you. This will be the last stop for you till you finish the first stage of the training."

A table molded itself and food came out of the Crypt Master’s storage ring: bread and meat and vegetables. And water. They wanted to fall on it immediately, but Crypt Master directed them to separate rooms to bathe.

They were provided with fresh training robes, and these were made of tough materials.

"Ah! This is good! Far better than that hideous meat I was forced to eat," Alex shouted as he chewed his meat. He was throwing as much as he could into his mouth.

He was the only one trying to talk and eat at the same time. Others were silent and stuffing their mouths. Catena was eating with his two hands.

Azaroth was eating slowly. He had tried to sniff the food earlier to see if there was poison in it, but he could not detect anything strange.

Crypt Master watched him do it and smiled in amusement while he rubbed his horn. Azaroth ate and watched him. They watched each other.

Azaroth wondered how powerful the Crypt Master was. As powerful as the leader of the Inferno Legion? He doubted that. Commander Apex would not risk having something that powerful in East Haven.

Or were they controlling the Crypt Master somehow? That should be something Azaroth should look into later. If it was possible to control him, but for now, what he should be focusing on was surviving the training.

They ate until they were full and even put the rest in their different storage spaces.

"So, what is this training all about?" Azaroth asked.

Crypt Master smiled. "The first stage will be filling your core with essence and using it continuously. The essence you take from the air is not solid enough. It’s not strong. Of course, a lot of people are using it, but it will only give you a false rank."

Azaroth was interested in this. "What do you mean by false rank?"

"The core will advance, but the essence in it will not be of the quality it should be," Crypt Master said. "If you want quality essence, then the best bet is to hunt crypts and take essence from monsters."

"To build up your foundation, start harvesting essence from monsters that you kill. They have the best quality essence to build your core."

Azaroth narrowed his eyes. So that’s why it was highly recommended to use essence from monsters to advance instead of just using the natural essence from the environment.

"And how do we get that here? This is a training crypt, yes? There’s no crypt here."

Crypt Master laughed. "You are sorely mistaken. I can manifest as many crypts as I want here. In this training crypt, I am god. Do not bother yourself. You will have enough crypts and monsters to stuff yourselves full."

As if to prove his point, he raised his hand and the room spun. The stone floor vanished, and everything became a blur of dark, like the night sky.

"What is going on?" Alex asked, panic mixed with his voice. He looked at the blurring dark around them.

"Showing you what I can do," Crypt Master said. Then, as if the sun had been waiting for its chance, it suddenly bloomed, and the dark was pierced by light. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The ground was first covered in green trees and undergrowth that spread as far as the eye could see, but that wasn’t the only thing that Azaroth noticed.

Among the tall trees were broken castles and hills with old structures. Azaroth understood then: crypts. Everything was covered in crypts a few distances from each other.

Azaroth and the others were suspended above it all, held there by the power of the Crypt Master. They sometimes saw monsters walking the green forest as they sped on above.

They asked why the monsters were not in the crypt as they should be, and Crypt Master told them that when monsters in his crypt gain enough power, they leave the crypt and wander outside, battling other monsters and claiming territory.

Azaroth looked at a red monster that was more spikes than flesh, and he knew why they were told they might not survive the five years.

Then Crypt Master continued speeding them around, showing them tall mountains and barren deserts and seas that rolled and leaped.